The Simplest Thing
by DramaLexy
Summary: A short Boomer piece set after the end of Episode 6: "Litmus."


TITLE: The Simplest Thing

AUTHOR: DramaLexy

DISCLAIMER: They're not mine (sniff, sniff) so don't sue. I'm a broke college student

SUMMARY: A short Boomer piece set after the end of Episode 6- "Litmus"

DISTRIBUTION: Sure, if you want it. Just let me know where

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm a feedback junkie, and this is my first Battlestar fic, so please, please, PLEASE send me a review and let me know what you thought. I just started with the show, so I didn't see the mini-series and probably have nicely sized holes in my knowledge base. I apologize if I messed something up continuity wise, just step into my little universe and go with it, lol.

* * *

Lieutenant Sharon Valerii sighed to herself as she approached her squadron's bunkroom. It had been a long, horribly miserable day and a half that seemed to keep getting worse and worse. And she would have loved to just crawl into her rack, shut out the world and sleep it off, but she couldn't. Not yet. Because there was a ten-year-old boy on the other side of the hatch that needed tucking in. She loved Boxey – that wasn't a question – but on days like that one, it hit her just how much of her life had changed, and how fast. It all threatened to overwhelm. 

She paused outside the hatch, taking a few breaths in an attempt to calm down. When she'd left that storage room somewhere in the bowels of the Galactica, she'd been flat-out furious at Aaron Tyrol for sending her world into yet another tailspin, but she'd settled down somewhat on the walk. Now, she needed to get any remaining tension out of her system before going inside – the last thing she wanted to do was to bring her problems to Boxey. Life was hard enough for the little boy.

Sharon finally got it together enough to go through the door. Mid shift had just recently ended at 2300 hours, and the pilots that were still trickling in from the deck did their best not to disturb the early shift pilots who were already sound asleep in their racks. She wasn't surprised, though, to find Boxey that was still awake. Sitting in his bunk, which was directly over hers, he had a book in one hand as he used the flashlight in the other to read.

"Hey, there." Upon hearing her voice, the book was instantly put down and Boxey reached to hug her. She was used to the enthusiastic greeting; it was almost if the child was reassuring himself that she really had come back to him once again. Sharon prayed that there wouldn't be a day where that wouldn't be true.

"What are you reading?" she quietly asked. Boxey held up the book – a Viper II manual.

"Starbuck gave it to me," he informed his guardian.

"You went and saw her today?" A nod.

"Yeah. She was bored, so we played cards."

"Sounds like you've had a good day."

"Yeah."

"Well, as nice as it is that you decided to wait up for me, it's really late, so I think it's time for lights out."

"I want to finish this part," he protested. "Aaron said before that if I got halfway through a manual, then he would show me around the real thing." Sharon sighed.

"Yeah, well, he's pretty busy, kiddo, and I don't know when he'll have time." The sadness must have slipped into her voice; Boxey looked at her critically.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"N-nothing. Lights out, all right?" Boxey reluctantly agreed, and turned off his light before lying down. Sharon stood on her own bed in order to reach and pull his blanket over him. "Goodnight."

"Night-night."

* * *

By the time she'd returned from the shower and changing into her sleep clothes, Boxey was sound asleep. She watched him for a few moments, wondering if she'd made the right choice for him. Children didn't belong on a battlestar, regardless of the fact that it was the most protected place in the fleet. Boxey didn't have anyone his own age to play with, and his educational instruction was coming in the form of reading whatever books the crew had managed to scrounge up. And besides all that, what exactly did she have to offer him? Her hours were long, her job was dangerous, and she'd left the fractured pieces of her personal life in a storage room a few decks below them. Yes, she loved him, and still couldn't bear to put him on an orphan ship, but – as she'd found out with heartbreaking clarity earlier that evening – love couldn't fix everything. 

Breaking out of her reverie, Sharon pulled the curtain closed across Boxey's bed in an attempt to provide him some protection from the noise that the early shift pilots would make when they got up around 0530. Slipping under her own blanket, she was almost instantly asleep. She wasn't even sure what time it was when her eyes cracked open again. Early. The room was dead silent, other than one little voice.

"Sharon…Sharon?"

As her eyes adjusted, she realized that Boxey was crouched beside her bed, his eyes wide and hands reaching for her. She pulled the little boy into her arms and held him as he cried. His nightmares had been slowly tapering off, but she knew they were far from gone. Watching your family die and your planet get wrecked – they weren't things that you got over easily.

"You okay?" she whispered as his tears subsided. He slowly nodded. "Come here." She slid over in bed, and he sat in front of her. The curtain was pulled shut to give them some privacy and hopefully keep from bothering anyone else. "Want to tell me what you were dreaming about?" Silence reigned for a long moment.

"Do you have to work tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I'm on mid shift." Another pause.

"Do you have to go?"

"Yeah, kiddo. Raptor piloting is my job."

"Are there going to be Vipers, too?"

"Uh-huh. We're doing a CAP."

"That means Combat Air Patrol, right?" Sharon smiled; he was picking up the lingo quick.

"Yeah, it does."

"What if something happens?"

"What do you mean?"

"What if the Cylons find us again, and you're out there when they come?"

"Hopefully they're not going to find us anytime soon."

"But what if they do? What if they sneak up and attack you?" Sharon took his hand.

"Boxey, was your dream about me?" He nodded.

"I don't want you to leave me, too."

"I know, but…we're in the middle of a war, Boxey, and I'm a military pilot. I can't always promise…I don't always know what's going to happen next. So we just have to take things one day at a time."

"I want you to be here for always."

"I will do my best to make sure that happens. That is something I'll promise you." Sharon smiled as he unsuccessfully tried to stifle a yawn. "Think you can get back to sleep now?"

"I guess so. Can we get breakfast in the morning?"

"Yeah, sure." Boxey climbed out of her bunk, and was about to start up the ladder to his own, but stopped.

"I love you, Sharon," he whispered with a little grin before continuing towards his bed. The hole in her heart that had formed the previous evening didn't feel so big anymore.

"I love you, too" she whispered back.

Maybe love couldn't fix everything, but it could make the dark a little less scary and a little less lonely. And for the moment, that would have to be enough.

* * *

Fin. 

See that little blue button down there? I know you know how to use it. 8-)


End file.
